Legendary radio talk show host Paul Benzaquin remembered

Paul Benzaquin, a Quincy native and longtime Marshfield resident who spent 35 years on Boston TV and radio and was lauded for his broadcast journalism, died Wednesday evening, his son said. He was 90.

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

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Posted Feb. 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 14, 2013 at 2:12 PM

Posted Feb. 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 14, 2013 at 2:12 PM

MARSHFIELD

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Paul Benzaquin, a Quincy native and longtime Marshfield resident who spent nearly 35 years on Boston TV and radio and was lauded for his broadcast journalism, died Wednesday evening, his son DonPaul Benzaquin of Norwell said. He was 90.

“We’re all saddened by his loss,” the younger Benzaquin said Thursday morning. “We will remember him for all the things he did for so many people.”

Funeral arrangements will be made at a later date. Benzaquin is also survived by his wife, Grace; a daughter, another son, a step-daughter; and grandchildren.

He began his media career in 1948 as a newspaper reporter for the Boston Globe and went on to work as a columnist for the Globe and later the Boston Herald, through the 1960s. At the same time, he wrote a best-selling book about the 1942 fire that destroyed Boston’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub and killed 492 people.

Benzaquin first went on the radio on WEEI in 1960. In 1963, he took up the new genre of talk radio and was among the first hosts to be suspended – in 1968 – for using a four-letter word on air.

He spent a year on the radio in Chicago but came back to Boston for good in 1971.

Benzaquin appeared each weekday morning on Channel 7 TV and was heard each weekday afternoon on WEEI radio.

His TV show continued until July 1975. He remained on the radio – at various stations including WBZ, WITS, WHDH and finally WRKO – for the next 13 years.

Benzaquin retired in 1989, but returned for a final run on WRKO from 1992 until May 1993.